Boy am I kicking myself for getting rid of all my baby stuff at Goodwill/tag sales! After 3 kids I felt like I had fine-tuned my baby-gear collection, and had a meticulously curated selection that was sparse but suited my needs, including a BOB running stroller, an Ergo carrier, and a kick ass cloth diaper stash...
8 year age gap, surprise pregnancy... I’m starting from scratch😩
IMPORTANT WARNING about the Baby Bjorn bouncer for moms who will have a toddler when baby arrives: As I mentioned I had one myself, loved it, and will definitely buy another one- BUT I don’t have toddlers anymore, lol. As you can see, the bouncer has a very sleek, simple design that uses the baby’s subtle movements to activate the bouncing action. But take another look... what does that design remind you of? If you said a catapult, you would be correct😳. I will never forget watching in horror as my sweet 2 year old leaned over my days old newborn to give her some lovin, unknowingly putting all his weight on the bouncer... and then as toddlers are prone to do, he saw something shiny and jumped up, and yup, you guessed it... as soon as he took his weight off the bouncer, it sprung up like a catapult, and had my daughter not been strapped in I swear she would have been launched across the room. I was afraid she had whiplash, or that it had rattled her little brain in her skull! Well she turned out to be fine, and looking back now I laugh, but at the time it was NOT.FUNNY. Now this was over 8 years ago, so it’s quite possible Baby Bjorn has redesigned the bouncer to prevent the catapault effect, but from what I can tell online it’s exactly the same.
I did some very brief cloth diapering when DD1 was a bit older -- 1 or 2 -- because I was hoping she'd better be able to feel when she was wet for potty training. I used prefolds and covers because I liked the size flexibility -- and the flip covers were my favorite. I got a couple with the microfiber inserts, but I preferred a pre fold with a snappi and then the cover over that, as that kept pee/poo off of the cover for the most part and was easier to clean up. I didnt have any pocket diapers, but I did have a rumparooz cover, and it was probably my second favorite after the flips. It had gussetted legs, which I liked because they helped keep the legs from leaking, but I didn't really have issues with the flips leaking either.
@knarlytaurus others may have had different experiences (based on those reviews, many did) but the Rumparooz was my least favourite diaper that we owned. I only had one of them and I always reached for it very last. I found it leaked, every time. Despite all of my diapers having been carefully washed (and they were always washed together) this particular one seemed to repel a bit. Our most-used/favourites were BumGenius 4.0s, I'm surprised they fall as low as they do on that list. The BumGenius Freetimes were nice too, but I found them more difficult to clean well and they tended to leak more often than the 4.0s. AppleCheeks are a Canadian brand (not on that list) but they were also wonderful and I started to get more of them as I added more diapers to my stash.
@wishiwaspreggo the Honest ones are so cute!! I won’t buy them mostly because I can’t afford them, but also because they were deemed not any better for the environment than other options, and they don’t have a wetness indicator which annoys me at that price. I did, however, get a free sample pack from them because I wanted the anchor print for DS’s newborn shoot (we put him in just a diaper and a swaddle). He looked stinking adorable!
@knarlytaurus I really liked the Flips for when at home. My favorite though is the BG Freetimes. Cottonbabies has seconds sales every couple of months and I would buy them then. Never could find anything wrong with them!
Ivy: July 2010 | Stella: Dec 2012 | BFP#3: MMC at 11Wk's, July 2017 | Wyatt: April 2019 | BFP#5: Twin Girls due Sept 2020
@knarlytaurus one of the main things I would look for is the absorption type- I hated microfiber, we always had compression leaks with that. We use cotton/hemp inserts now and I love them. When ds was in nb size, we used cotton prefolds and I liked th absorbency of those too.
@knarlytaurus others may have had different experiences (based on those reviews, many did) but the Rumparooz was my least favourite diaper that we owned. I only had one of them and I always reached for it very last. I found it leaked, every time. Despite all of my diapers having been carefully washed (and they were always washed together) this particular one seemed to repel a bit. Our most-used/favourites were BumGenius 4.0s, I'm surprised they fall as low as they do on that list. The BumGenius Freetimes were nice too, but I found them more difficult to clean well and they tended to leak more often than the 4.0s. AppleCheeks are a Canadian brand (not on that list) but they were also wonderful and I started to get more of them as I added more diapers to my stash.
How you felt about rumparooz is how I felt about bumgenius. No matter how big i made it the diaper was always too small for my son. It would dig into him.
Pregnancy #1 DD 08.30.2007 Pregnancy #2 Natural Miscarriage at 6 weeks 03/2014 Due date 11/9/2014 Pregnancy #3 DS 02.23.2015 Pregnancy #4 Missed Miscarriage at 11 weeks 11/2018 Due date 5/22/2019 Pregnancy #5 Positive test 12/11/2019 Due Date 8/17/2020
Anyone got any recommendations for a good sized and quality diaper bag that would accommodate things for a toddler and a newborn? Im willing to shell out extra $$ for better quality if it'll last.
@expandcontract I had a Skiphop Bento Ultimate diaper bag. It definitely had the capacity I needed for a toddler and a newborn. Overall I was pretty pleased with it and the included thermal and snack containers were also a bonus that we used often. But looking back I wish I had gone with a backpack style diaper bag. I intend to get a backpack this time around. Backpacks are just way smarter than totes when you really need all limbs available to handle the children, IMO.
@expandcontract I have a jujube be right back, backpack style diaper bag and I love it. Plenty of room and lots of organization and it’s machine washable. We’ve been using it for almost 2 years and it still looks brand new.
@expandcontract I only have DS right now, but I loved my Pottery Barn diaper bag. That was a splurge item that I received as a gift, but I could carry so much stuff. Now that he’s a toddler and doesn’t need as much, we use it for a travel bag for his stuff when we go on short trips. I’ll use it again with this baby.
@expandcontract, I second @aels12’s recommendation of the jujube BRB backpack! I switched to it when #2 came along and I have enough room in it for a Day trip (including snacks, changes of clothes, wet bag and first aid kit) for two kids! The key is to compartmentalize the backpack. I also have the Okkatot (sp?) backpack that I’ll use for packing clothes for up to weeklong trips (or everything for a long weekend), but it’s jusf a little too big for day to day activities. This was after using a skiphop bento with #1, which I liked, but didn’t end up loving b/c I couldn’t keep clothes from getting super wrinkly in the deep (but narrow) main compartment.
Re: Baby Splurges
8 year age gap, surprise pregnancy... I’m starting from scratch😩
IMPORTANT WARNING about the Baby Bjorn bouncer for moms who will have a toddler when baby arrives: As I mentioned I had one myself, loved it, and will definitely buy another one- BUT I don’t have toddlers anymore, lol. As you can see, the bouncer has a very sleek, simple design that uses the baby’s subtle movements to activate the bouncing action. But take another look... what does that design remind you of? If you said a catapult, you would be correct😳. I will never forget watching in horror as my sweet 2 year old leaned over my days old newborn to give her some lovin, unknowingly putting all his weight on the bouncer... and then as toddlers are prone to do, he saw something shiny and jumped up, and yup, you guessed it... as soon as he took his weight off the bouncer, it sprung up like a catapult, and had my daughter not been strapped in I swear she would have been launched across the room. I was afraid she had whiplash, or that it had rattled her little brain in her skull! Well she turned out to be fine, and looking back now I laugh, but at the time it was NOT.FUNNY. Now this was over 8 years ago, so it’s quite possible Baby Bjorn has redesigned the bouncer to prevent the catapault effect, but from what I can tell online it’s exactly the same.
Sorry for the novel!
Pregnancy #2 Natural Miscarriage at 6 weeks 03/2014 Due date 11/9/2014
Pregnancy #3 DS 02.23.2015
Pregnancy #4 Missed Miscarriage at 11 weeks 11/2018 Due date 5/22/2019
Pregnancy #5 Positive test 12/11/2019 Due Date 8/17/2020
https://www.potterybarnkids.com/m/products/navy-classic-mom-diaper-bag/?pkey=bdiaper-bag&cm_src=productsearch&isx=0.0.444